Long Project 2 @ Newcastle and Gateshead 2008

The Long Project 2, 2008 Brief introduction

This new project was funded by NGI (NewcastleGateshead Initivate) Culture 10 and based on the previous one but will be involving more schools. Four Year 5 classes from different primary schools, two from Newcastle and two from Gateshead, will be involved in this project. Pupils from the same city will team up with each other to design and create a dragon that represents their city. After completing the creation, both teams will dance their dragon at the Quayside. It will be part of the Year of Look East and 2008 Chinese New Year’s celebration. Each team will dance along each side of the river and then move towards the Millennium Bridge. They will greet each other in the middle of the bridge to celebrate the coming of the Chinese New Year.

In addition, during the project development, there will be a cultural exchange programme to link the four year five classes in Newcastle and Gateshead and another four year five classes from schools in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Taipei.

NGI http://www.newcastlegateshead.com/index.php

Aim of the project

Theaim of this project, the Long Project 2, is to create an international link in culture between North East of England, China, and Taiwan. It involves young people from 8 schools in these four areas. They will work together to create two 50 metre Chinese dragons to celebrate the “Year of East 2008”.
This proposal is promoting cultural diversity and to be able to produce a new piece of work which would be part of the Culture 10 "the Look East" programme and Chinese New Year celebration 2008.

Culture 10 http://www.newcastlegateshead.com/culture10.php

A brief introduction to The Long Project, 2007
The Long Project was an 8 week project funded by Arts Council England’s grants. I worked with 30 pupils from the West Jesmond Primary to create a 20 metre long “Long” (dragon in Chinese) from December 2006 to early February 2007. Throughout different stages including story telling, dragon designing, construction and performance, the pupils participated in this project were able to gain a greater appreciation of the traditions behind it.

The dragon which created by the pupils was also part of the Chinese New Year celebration 2007 (the Year of Pig). These pupils danced the dragon for the Chinese New Year Launch Party in front of public at the Monument, Newcastle 15 February 2007. The whole project gained a great feedback from the public and press.

A video clip for 2007 Long Project